How to Use Google Search Console for Powerful Keyword Research
Google Search Console (GSC) is widely known for measuring website performance and identifying technical issues. But many people overlook one of its most valuable features: keyword research.
GSC provides detailed insights into the search queries (keywords) that attract users to your website. This makes it an excellent free tool to uncover high-potential keywords that can significantly boost your organic traffic.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through three effective methods for using Google Search Console for keyword research, plus how to measure your progress.
How to Find Good Keywords in Google Search Console
Google Search Console shows you exactly which keywords bring users to your website from Google search. By analyzing this data, you can:
- Discover high-performing keywords you should continue focusing on.
- Identify underperforming keywords that need optimization.
- Uncover easy-win keywords that can quickly boost your traffic with minimal effort.
Let’s explore these strategies in detail.
Method 1: Find High-Value Keywords to Keep in Your Strategy
High-value keywords are terms that already drive a significant amount of traffic to your website. These are proven winners in your SEO strategy and should continue to be a focus for your content and optimization efforts.
Step 1: Access Search Results in Google Search Console
Start by navigating to the “Search results” tab in GSC, located under the “Performance” section on the overview page.
You’ll see important performance metrics such as:
- Total Clicks: The number of times users clicked on your website in search results.
- Total Impressions: How often your site appeared in search results, even if users didn’t scroll to see it.
- Average CTR (Click-Through Rate): The percentage of impressions that led to clicks.
- Average Position: The typical ranking of your pages for various queries.
Step 2: Identify High-Performing Keywords
Scroll down to the “Queries” section and sort the keywords by clicks. These are your highest-performing keywords—terms that consistently drive traffic to your site.
You should continue creating supporting content and optimizing existing pages around these keywords to maintain or improve their performance.
Step 3: Find Related Keyword Opportunities
Your top-ranking keywords can serve as a starting point to find related terms with similar traffic potential.
For example, if one of your best-performing keywords is “what to visit in Rome,” you can naturally explore related searches like:
- “what to visit in Rome in 3 days”
- “best catacombs to visit in Rome”
By expanding into related topics, you can capture more traffic while supporting your existing keyword strategy.
Step 4: Avoid Keyword Cannibalization
When creating multiple pieces of content around similar keywords, be cautious about keyword cannibalization. This happens when different pages on your site compete for the same keyword or satisfy the same search intent.
For example:
- A news article about new restaurants in Milan serves a different purpose than a guide to the best restaurants in Milan.
- The first satisfies the need for timely updates, while the second provides evergreen recommendations.
When your content satisfies different search intents, you can safely cover multiple related topics without harming your rankings.
Method 2: Find Underperforming Keywords to Optimize For
Not all keywords perform equally well. Sometimes, you may rank for a keyword but still receive little traffic. These underperforming keywords are often in striking distance of page one and offer a major opportunity to increase clicks with small improvements.
Step 1: Understand Underperforming Keywords
Underperforming keywords typically have:
- High impressions but low click-through rates (CTR).
- Average rankings that are too low to attract attention.
Google data shows that nearly 70% of clicks go to the top three organic search results. If you’re ranking beyond that, you’re missing most of the potential traffic.
Step 2: Identify Underperforming Keywords in GSC
In Google Search Console:
- Go to the “Search results” section under “Performance.”
- Choose a time frame of the last three months to focus on recent data.
- Sort the keyword list by Impressions in descending order.
This will highlight keywords that your site ranks for, but which aren’t attracting enough clicks.
Step 3: Focus on Striking Distance Keywords
Look for keywords where your average position is between 11 and 30. These are on the second or third page of search results and often called “striking distance” keywords.
Although GSC doesn’t offer a built-in filter to quickly isolate this range, you can manually review the list and note which keywords are close to page one.
Prioritizing these keywords can help you achieve quick traffic gains with minimal effort.
Step 4: Optimize Existing Pages
Once you identify underperforming keywords, apply on-page SEO techniques to improve your rankings:
- Incorporate the target keyword in the page title, introduction, headings, and naturally throughout the content.
- Improve content quality. Analyze top-ranking competitors and provide more comprehensive, valuable, or engaging content.
- Write a compelling meta description. This acts like an advertisement for your page in the search results. Make it persuasive and relevant to increase clicks.
These small adjustments can significantly improve your CTR and push your page higher in the rankings.
Method 3: Find Easy Wins (Low-Hanging Fruit)
Some of the best keyword opportunities are hidden in plain sight—pages on your website that already rank for relevant queries without much optimization. These are easy wins, and optimizing for them can bring quick results.
Step 1: Identify Low-Hanging Keywords
In Google Search Console:
- Go to the “Search results” report.
- Click the “Pages” tab to view a list of your site’s pages with CTR and impressions data.
Select a page you want to optimize. Once you click it, GSC will automatically show you the keywords that page ranks for.
Step 2: Find Easy Win Keywords
Look for keywords that have high impressions but low clicks on that page. These keywords indicate that Google already recognizes your content as relevant, but it may not be fully optimized to capture clicks.
By naturally incorporating these keywords as secondary terms within your content, you can improve rankings and CTR.
Step 3: Ensure Keyword Relevance
It’s essential to choose secondary keywords that are closely related to your page’s topic.
For example, if your page is about travel tips for Rome, adding keywords about Rome’s best cafes makes sense. But forcing unrelated keywords—like Rome’s football history—may make the content seem disjointed and harm your SEO performance.
Focus on enhancing relevance, not simply stuffing keywords.
How to Measure Keyword Research Success in Google Search Console
Once you’ve implemented your keyword research strategies, it’s crucial to measure your results to understand what’s working and where you can improve.
Step 1: Track Overall Performance
Go to GSC’s “Overview” page and review the performance chart showing total web search clicks over the past three months.
You can click “Full report” for a more detailed view, including impressions, CTR, and average position. Use the Date filter to adjust the time period.
Step 2: Choose the Right Metrics
Select the right metrics based on your SEO goals:
- If you’re focused on increasing visibility: Monitor Total Impressions and Average Position.
- If you’re aiming to boost clicks: Track Total Clicks and Average CTR.
This approach helps you tailor your strategy based on whether you want more exposure or more traffic from your current rankings.
Step 3: Analyze Page and Query Performance
You can also monitor performance at the individual page and keyword level to see how your optimizations are impacting specific areas of your site.
For example:
- After optimizing a page for a striking distance keyword, did clicks increase?
- After adding secondary keywords to an existing page, did impressions go up?
Use these insights to fine-tune your ongoing keyword strategy.
Conclusion
Google Search Console is a powerful and free resource for keyword research. It gives you direct, real-world data about how people find your website on Google.
By using GSC to:
- Identify high-value keywords to keep in your strategy,
- Find underperforming keywords to optimize, and
- Uncover easy-win keywords you can quickly boost,
You can build a sustainable SEO approach that steadily increases your organic traffic.
Best of all, GSC gives you data straight from Google—without any cost.
To succeed, commit to regularly reviewing your GSC reports and refining your content based on the insights you uncover. Over time, these small, data-driven improvements can lead to significant growth in search visibility and website traffic.